There are fewer billboards this time, but the people who brought you the popular Rapture "scare" of May 2011 are back with a more subdued sequel titled "Wait, Wait, We Meant October."

You may recall the excitement earlier this year when Grand Rapids received a visit from the followers of Family Radio Worldwide, a California-based Christian group led by 89-year-old Harold Camping, who were traveling the country to loudly and colorfully proclaim Judgment Day's imminence.

It didn't happen. OR DID IT!? The conspicuous lack of a world-ending earthquake left Camping and his followers scrambling to explain why life somehow continued as normal after May 21. Here, according to Family Radio's website, is what they've settled on:

What really happened this past May 21st? What really happened is that God accomplished exactly what He wanted to happen. That was to warn the whole world that on May 21 God’s salvation program would be finished on that day. For the next five months, except for the elect (the true believers), the whole world is under God’s final judgment. To accomplish this goal God withheld from the true believers the way in which two phrases were to be understood. Had He not done so, the world would never have been shaken in fear as it was.

What does that mean? The statement goes on:

Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011, on the last day of the present five months period. On that day the true believers (the elect) will be raptured. We must remember that only God knows who His elect are that He saved prior to May 21.

In the months since the non-Rapture, Camping turned 90, suffered a stroke, and was awarded an Ig Nobel prize for his dubious contributions to human knowledge.

As his revised date approaches, Camping seems less confident -- the Christian Post notes Camping's proclamations about Oct. 21 have been heavy on the probablys. So if you find yourself unable to muster the same enthusiasm for Rapture 2011 this time around, you're definitely not alone.

Does he give a time? That’s my birthday and I’m looking forward to my cake...If it’s after 6:00pm then I’m good to go...otherwise I’ll have to throw the party earlier...I hate it when this stuff happens!

It would be rather ironic for the Leftists if Palin declared that she was running for Prez...and FUNNY, because if she decides to announce she’s running the Left will think the world is truly coming to an end.

LOL! Ain’t that the truth that something always happens. I was really lookiing forward to the Packers vs Lions game on Thanksgiving Day. I think’ll ask Brother Camping to delay JD again until after the Packers win Super Bowl XLVI.

Yeah, and my prediction is that the old fart...er...fraud will meet judgement on that day when he is struck by a turd travelling 80,000 mph into the atmosphere after being released from the International Space Station.

Hey, it’s as likely to happen as his re-prediction.

29
posted on 10/05/2011 2:26:09 PM PDT
by RJS1950
(The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)

Oh rats! My hair appointment is for the 22nd. and they’re all booked up prior to that. Then too, when will the end begin? I’m in Aussie-land and the IDL is just off NZ - would it happen here first? But then it’ll be the next day when the US gets hit, or does it happen all at once. So confusing .....

33
posted on 10/05/2011 2:36:47 PM PDT
by SkyDancer
(Talent Without Ambition Is Bad, Ambition Without Talent Is Worse.)

Uh, I think your use of the word "Aztecs" is now officially classed as racist.

According to a recent PC history I read, 1493 (OK I only read half before I could not take anymore), the proper term is "The Triple Alliance."

I kid you not, but I will admit that "The Triple Alliance" reminds me of some 19th Century European power bloc, instead of THE GREATEST CIVILIZATION THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN, which is what all right-thinking people know the Aztecs, whoops, I mean The Triple Alliance, was.

35
posted on 10/05/2011 2:39:11 PM PDT
by Martin Tell
(ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it)

I think Camping’s got some wires crossed. He keeps predicting the end only it turns out he's actually getting premonitions of his own health issues. Hopefully, this time it'll just be a kidney stone rather than a stroke.

How hard Mr. Camping took it in May and how hard he will take it in October, concerns me less than how hard some of our more ignorant brethren will take it.

Having gotten caught up in Camping’s predictions, will they abandon Christianity in any form, altogether, when his predictions collapse? If we should pray for anyone it is them. We should pray that they not lose ALL faith and rest in Him to find their way back.

I believe He forgives them and He wants them not to lose all faith but to find their way back to Him.

That's true of anyone who seeks forgiveness. But are they seeking forgiveness? Intuition tells me if they're strong followers of Camping they harbor beliefs apart from - if not antithetical to - Christianity.

We laugh and make jokes about this but it truthfully is so sad. The problem is that people get a warped idea of what the rapture is and all these “false alarms” make them bolder in their mocking. Some day the Rapture spoke of in the Bible , of which only God knows the day and hour, will take place and I believe there will be those that were not prepared due to people causing confusion like this.

This man really needs to shut up. He cannot possibly know and the Bible states the same.

It is one thing to encourage people to come to Christ for now and whenever each person’s “end” comes. It is another to claim you know the day God picked for the Rapture.

I understand Christians in some third-world countries, including North Korea, were slaughtered for proclaiming their belief to the villages in which they lived. A large part of me thinks this man is responsible for their deaths.

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